“Wilf has been carrying something and we decided that it was probably best not to aggravate it.

“We would have only had four days with him, whereas with the others we get two weeks, which is a great extended period to work with them.

“He would have only been available for the one game anyway, so over the five games we’ve got Nathan Redmond who’s been playing really well and Tom Ince, who were the two wingers who started the last game.

“There’s Jesse Lingard, who has been knocking on the door for us a lot and has had a really good loan spell at Brighton, and that’s before we look at the boys who have just come into the squad.”

Wilfried Zaha who spent the second half of the season on loan at Cardiff has made 7 appearances for the Welsh club and has failed to impress his loan club.